Baxter to resign Texas House seat

[Mithras61]

Special election offers edge heading into 2006 contest.

By Jason Embry

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, October 20, 2005

State Rep. Todd Baxter, an Austin Republican facing a tough re-election campaign, will resign his office Nov. 1.

<snip>

Baxter first won election to the House in 2002 and won re-election last year by fewer than 200 votes. He has been attacked by Democrats for some of his sources of support in 2002.

Baxter received money from the Republican National Committee, which has been at the heart of the recent indictments of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. DeLay and his associates are accused of laundering the money through the Republican group to illegally funnel corporate money to seven Texas legislative candidates, including Baxter.

<snip>


Looks like the rats are deserting the ship...

[WI_DEM]

1. This is a golden opportunity for Dems with all the GOP problems.

[Cha]

13. So descriptively right,

WI_DEM! :toast:

[rkc3]

25. Yes, but who will lead?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. they are

I wonder if he will be directly tied to Delay

[napi21]

3. So did he say WHY he's resigning?

You don't suppose he's ratting on DeLay, do ya? (Please, please, please!)

[Mithras61]

7. Officially? To spend more time with his family...

"I am stepping aside because my family and my professional career come first," Baxter said in a written statement. "My wife and I are expecting our second child this spring, and I am looking forward to spending more time with my family. As I prepared for yet another winning campaign, I realized the full cost of elective victory was the lost time with my family and professional endeavors."

Unofficially, I suspect that he knows things (and he may, because he was a recipient of the DeLay-TRMPAC-RNC machine's largesse) about the inner workings of DeLay's bribery/graft-for-legislation scandal.

[jackster]

8. professional endeavors? professional career?

as a congressman, his profession is, well, as a congressman isn't it? I just find this disgusting. Apparently the noble calling to serve in the US Congress just isn't woth a little bit of sacrifice!

[Mithras61]

19. You may not be aware of it, but the TX legislature only meets...

every other year, and for a limited ammount of time (3 months, I think), unless a special 30-day session is called for a specific topic.

That means that under normal circumstances, the congressman would have been too busy around 9 months out of every two years to pursue his "professional career." It would have been a tad bit more work than normal, but well within the realm of doable. The idea is that we don't WANT professional politicians running the state.

[Lexingtonian]

31. interesting theory, that

The idea of an amateur-filled part time legislature is pretty appropriate were Texas still an actual frontier rural territory a la Wyoming. But it's friggin' 20 million people and more than a half dozen metro areas now, and there's some limit to how low the quality of governance can go- even if it is Texas.

I'm a little surprised that you don't see this as the fiction it clearly has become. These 'special sessions' are becoming normal resorts by the state government apparatus. And the people elected to seats in the Legislature clearly see it as their primary career. I mean, that's what that massive effort to oust the Asian-American fellow who won a House seat last year means, doesn't it?

The last piece to the transition to a professional legislature is a demonstration (well, some form of scandal that reveals) that more than half the legislators clearly use their seats to provide themselves with their primary income, not having the time or energy or interest to invest in their "real jobs" anymore. Though maybe it happens when Texas runs out of those rich people that can pose as Good Ol' Boys/Gals.

[Mithras61]

32. Actually...

I happen to believe that a professional legislature is long overdue in Texas. I was stating the case based on how the framers of the Texas constitution viewed the world of governance. .

I happen to think that having legislators that 1) know the existing law, 2) represent their district, 3) don't have to find other work to stay financially liquid, and 4) have the time & staff to legislate properly have a much better chance at governing for the benefit of all of their constituents, but to replace the entire constitution of Texas (which is what this would likely entail) isn't likely to happen any time soon.

Instead what we have is generally regarded as a laughing stock by people outside Texas, and most of them don't seem even the least bit shy about expressing that sentiment (at least to me). I really do believe that less government is not better government. Perhaps it was so at one point in time (I tend to doubt that, too), but it certainly isn't so at this point in time. There are too many critical functions that government performs, and having understaffed, ignorant, or incompentent staffers is dangerous, and can be fatal (witness Louisiana, New Orleans, FEMA and Dept. of Homeland Insecurity).

[Lexingtonian]

38. I got misled a bit

by your phrasing of 'we want'. Sorry I didn't catch the ironic tone or ambiguity to it.

In the past government did less and didn't need to do as much, that's true. But that was when life ran pretty close to subsistence level for most people. When you had a water quality problem it was your own well that had the problem, not a municipal water supply.

The average person's life has now become so interdependent on so many other peoples' behavior and production of adequate stuff, though, that the quality of government very much determines the upper limits on quality of life and level of productivity of the average person. Life is better when you don't have to worry about being infected with cryptosporidium at the fruit stand all the time, don't get reminded of why your car maker was permitted to make as defective a product or hide it from you in the first place every time you get in your clunker, and don't have to anticipate that the plumber or the dentist are going to screw with you every time in ways you can't possibly have the time and money to fight, never mind dealing with minimal government services.

[Mithras61]

39. Not a problem...

I should have been clearer in my usage (maybe put it in quotes or attribute it to the framers...).

[jackster]

46. Yes, I do remember that - a brain freeze apparently!

Thanks for the reminder!

[Mithras61]

47. Or maybe just too darn much stuff to remember... (n/t)

[napi21]

9. Oh man! Can't they get a little more creative?

That one's getting really OLD!

[aquart]

20. Was this part of a plea bargain?

[Raster]

27. to spend more time with my family = get out of Dodge, keep a low profile,

and hope they don't string me up too.

[holboz]

35. Hee hee hee - typical Rethug reason, eh?

Same song, different verse, Baxter. We've heard it all before. Now come on. Tell us the REAL reason.

:boring:

[PurityOfEssence]

55. You mean to spend more time with his lawyers?

n/t

[walkon]

4. Time with the family is

Sooooo important.

[WI_DEM]

6. That's the standard reply these jokers gave

but then they didn't think of their families when they ran just last year, and now they are willing to quit! Family, my foot--I'm sure it's connected to Delay in some way.

[sarcasmo]

5. Everyone on Delay's funds received list should be attacked.

[DemoTex]

18. That list was posted on DU a few months back ..

Anyone got a link to it? We need to keep those names on the front burner with the flame turned on "HIGH."

[msanthrope]

10. I'm betting he got a federal target letter.

Abramoff redirected 41k into his coffers, minumum.

It's the Abramoff investigation.

[Mithras61]

12. Could be...

in which case he maybe knows more than I thought when I just knew he'd benefitted from the TRMPAC stuff...

[warrens]

16. He ain't doing it out of the goodness of his black heart

Kaching. Add another dem seat, in perpetuity, unless they can redistrict again by November.

[Lexingtonian]

11. First rat off the sinking ship...

I hear Texas voters are...unhappy...with their Legislature and state government in general.

You know, the kind of unhappy that at some point leads to overturned cars and burning buildings.

[Mithras61]

17. Well, lesse... How many special sessions did they use...

to come up with no plan on school financing? (I've honestly lost track, but I think it's around 6 in the last two years). How many school finance plans actually passed and were signed into law? (Here's a hint - it looks a lot like an egg). And that's on just one issue.

Of course, they DID come up with a anti-gay marriage/domestic partnership/anti-gay meassure (in a special session where they are bound by law to only consider measures for which the session was called).

[NoPasaran]

23. Actually, the second rat departing the GOP pirate ship

A few months ago Terry Keel, the rethug in HD 47 just to the south of Baxter's district announced that he would not seek reelection. We have a very good chance of winning that race once we get through our primary in March. The candidate I'm supporting is Jason Earle.

Baxter was going to have a tough race; we have an even better chance of picking up his seat too and turning the whole Travis County legislative delegation blue!

[displacedtexan]

45. The Keels & the Bushes are very tight!

I'll PM you with the juicy details.

[Jane Austin]

14. Baxter is in the Texas Legislature, not Congress.

He was however, one of the beneficiaries of the funds that changed the face of the Texas State Legislature, for which Tom Delay is under indictment.

Had he and a few other Republican candidates not been elected to the Texas House in 2002, Texas wouldn't have been redistricted and the Republican majority in the Congressional House of Reps wouldn't have grown by four or five in the 2004 election.

[Vogon_Glory]

57. Democrats Need One Of The Texas Houses Back

Democrats need to take at least one of the Texas state houses back. If one of them had been in solid Democratic control, Tom De Lay would not only have been unable to force the Texas legislature to redistrict several Texas Democratic congressional representatives out of office, but he might very likely have had to deal with a US House of Representatives again in Democratic hands.

[4_Legs_Good]

15. Seats like this we *have* to take

Anything even close have to be ours in 2006. We need to take back at least one House of Congress.

david

[Tight_rope]

21. Another one bites the dust!....

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:applause: :applause::applause: :applause::applause: :applause:
:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl::rofl: :rofl:
:evilgrin::evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[Tight_rope]

22. Another one bites the dust!....

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
:applause: :applause::applause: :applause::applause: :applause:
:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl::rofl: :rofl:
:evilgrin::evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[jobycom]

26. That's worth two posts!!

:rofl:

[jobycom]

24. That's my rep--some background on his connection to DeLay

He ran against incumbent Ann Kitchen, a rising star in the Democratic Party in Austin, in a district redrawn in the first redistricting to favor the Repubs. Ann was doing well in the polling, anyway, but Baxter was a former County Supervisor with a good reputation, so it was close. At the end of the race, a barage of mailouts accused Kitchen of opposing education, being a tax and spend liberal--all of hte usual lies Republicans hurl. She didn't have the money to counter all these claims, and lost by a couple percentage points (48-52, or something like that).

Turns out the last barage of mailouts were funded by Texas Association of Businesses, a PAC which claimed it could spend corporate money on the race because the mailouts weren't supporting a candidate, but merely educating the voters on the issues. That would be legal. Except that the mailouts came so close to endorsing Baxter over Kitchen that even the conservative Austin American Statesman said that TAB had violated the law.

So Ann Kitchen sued. She was ridiculed, even in her own party, but her case, and others, helped inspire the investigations into DeLay's PAC, because TAB was tied to DeLay's PAC, Texans for a Republican Majority. DeLay and the head of TAB were once partners in the Texas legislature, and both are pro-corporate Repubs who hide behind a neocon message. TRM supplied some of the corporate funds that TAB used in its "Issue ads" to "educate" the voters.

Kitchen was one of the former Reps who filed an affidavit before the Grand Jury investigating DeLay. She and her race were near the center of the controversy (along with others). One of her accusations, and this is the important part, was that Baxter coordinated with TAB on its issue ads. Baxter did a mailout attacking Kitchen's spending record, using TAB ratings, and Kitchen did a phone message to defend herself. The next day, TAB did a counter phone message attacking Kitchen's message. Later, Baxter did a mailout on his education record, and the next day TAB did a mailout attacking Kitchen's education record.

Kitchen accused Baxter of coordinating with TAB, which would make him guilty of conspiracy if TAB was found guilty of using corporate funds in a campaign. Baxter denied it, but the denial is unbelievable, given the timing.

So, if Baxter is under investigation, that's what it's for--conspiracy with TAB, and probably thus with TRM. Or, he amy just realize that he'll get smacked around by these allegations if he runs again, and doesn't want to go through that. Either way, this resignation is a direct result of the DeLay indictments. And more, it indicates something else. Someone in the R Party is making Baxter do this. SO someone else is afraid of the DeLay charges. It means that even in Republican minds, DeLay is done for, despite his cleverl lawyer's tactics.

Here's a link to even more information. Excellent article from an excellent source, from before the indictments.
http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleFileName=030829_f1.htm

(I wonder if anyone reads all this stuff I type!) :-)

[Burried News]

29. I did and appreciate it very much.

"(I wonder if anyone reads all this stuff I type!) :-)"

The details of how they work their 'magic' is very important so that we can watch for it in local elections.

[Nimrod2005]

33. Can a Dem win this seat?

[jobycom]

34. Kelly White came within 200 votes of winning it last year, so, yeah.

And for the record, while I loved Kelly White, she was a bad campaigner. She had trouble bonding with an audience. She was (is) a very impressive person on a lot of levels, but as a campaigner, she was very inexperienced. And she came close.

Baxter was popular. Without Baxter in the race, it's wide open. I'd love to see WHite or Kitchen run again, but neither is talking about it.

This is a state legislature seat. Not a US Representative seat, in case anyone has any confusion on that.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

41. Politics is pretty disgusting

There was a day when this stuff was done face to face with no money going to anybody. Particularly the media.

No wonder it's nearly impossible to get decent reps.

[jobycom]

49. Unfortunately, the decent reps follow the law, and are handicapped

whereas the criminally disposed, like DeLay and Bush, break the law, and have an unfair advantage.

The solution is to either have no laws, or to have a stronger enforcement of the laws, and a good step towards the latter will be convicting DeLay and putting him behind bars for a very long time. The problem is that often to get in a position to enforce the laws, you have to go through the same corrupt system, and you are therefore likely to be part of the problem, and unwilling to be part of the solution.

So the only real solution is having a well-informed electorate, but they can't be informed unless we have an objective media.

Which is why they had media regulation in the first place, so that the media wouldn't be controlled by the same people breaking the laws, so that the people could be informed, so they could vote for better reps.

We need reregulation of ownership of media outlets. Until then, we will continue to live in the Second Gilded Age.

I really do write too much!

[TygrBright]

56. There was? Not in my lifetime...

>>There was a day when this stuff was done face to face with no money going to anybody<<

And I've been around a long time. There's ALWAYS been dirty money in politics at every level in America. Sometimes more, sometimes less... but it's always been there.

We're just seeing levels of shamelessness and spikes of grotesquely inflated financial shenanigans that rival the late 19th century, before the Progressives and the other goo-goo groups started cleaning things up.

The magnitude and amplitude of corruption diminished somewhat during the mid-20th century, spiked briefly in the 1950s, and then started to climb again in the 1980s.

It might be really, really, really interesting if some poli-sci research type graphed the appearance of news stories about vote-buying, election-finance violations, and similar forms of corruption, against which party happened to be in control of the White House and/or Congress at the time.

Of course, there MIGHT be no correlation at all, but...

curiously,
Bright

[Tight_rope]

43. I did too and appreciate it very much....Thanks for keeping us informed!

[BikeWriter]

53. I read it. Damned informative!

[0007]

28. Are they gonna get Tom Craddick, the House Speaker?

He was Tom DeLay's boy and the money runner.

I received this message from Craddick in the mail today. And I would hope DUers would respond to his office.

Lawsuit Reform

During the 78th Legislative Session, legislators, passed significant tort reform legislation, making Texas a model for other states looking to pass similar measures. The reforms have drastically reduced frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals, lowered insurance cost for medical providers and given patients better access to care as doctors spend more time in the examination room and less time in the courtroom.

This session, legislators put Texas even further ahead by voting to keep frivolous asbestos and fast food lawsuits out of Texas. These laws allow only legitimate asbestos lawsuits to be
heard in Texas courts, and protect restaurants from frivolous "obesity lawsuits".

Contact information; Don't let this pole cate skate.

TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TOM CRADDICK
SPEAKER
P.O. BOX 2910 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78768-2910

Capitol Office
Room CAP 2W.13
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
[phone]
[phone] Fax District Office

500 West Texas, Ste 880
Midland, TX 79701
[phone]
[phone] Fax

[deadparrot]

30. Anyone know anything about Andy Brown, Donna Howard, or Kathy Rider?

They're the Democrats who have announced a run for the seat in 2006.

[bonzotex]

52. Andy Brown seems to have the best campaign

Brown is out at all the expected clubs and functions, plus already doing mailers and an e-mail campaign. I've met all three at various Dem functions. Any one of them would be a better rep than Baxter.

Baxter is a POS, and neckdeep in the sleezy Repug Texan swamp. Good riddance.

All three Dem candidates are catering to the liberal crowd of Austin. Hard to pull one of them out as the "best". If the Repugs can't recruit someone very strong, this district will go blue.

[rodeodance]

36. that is only 10 days away. Rather sudden.

[rodeodance]

37. why not finish out his term. something strange.

"I am stepping aside because my family and my professional career come first," Baxter said in a written statement. "My wife and I are expecting our second child this spring, and I am looking forward to spending more time with my family. As I prepared for yet another winning campaign, I realized the full cost of elective victory was the lost time with my family and professional endeavors."

[SleeplessinSoCal]

40. If he resigns does the Governor appoint a replacement?

And if so, then the replacement has some advantages next year.

[Mithras61]

44. No, Gov. Rick "Good Hair" Perry doesn't get to pick the replacement...

They have to have a special election to fill the vacancy (it is a State congressional seat, not Federal). The elected will have the dubious benefit of being the incumbent in the 3Q2006 election (dubious because of what will likely come out between now & then in court).

[lovuian]

42. Whoo Hoo!!! Texas Dems fighting back!!!

while Tom is busy defending himself things unravel quickly!!!

[katty]

48. Great! the more resigning Rethugs the better!

[txaslftist]

50. buh bye sellout

[WCGreen]

51. Man they are good....

I got to give them credit...

I bet this guy was only suppose to stay long enough to get the congressional seats redrawn....

[Strawman]

54. "Oh Baxter...

you are my little gentleman. i will take you to foggy london town cuz you're what? my little gentleman."